We begin with an Oval Office presser on Tuesday, when a White House reporter asked Trump to respond to criticism from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, GA-14) for spending time on foreign policy during the government shutdown.

One correction: you will hear Claire misstate the beginning of the Watergate affair as the summer of 1971: it was the summer of 1972.

Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking with attendees at the 2021 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

News Summary:

* A federal judge’s ruling that created a majority Democratic district in Utah highlights the successful fight against Trump’s arm-twisting to get the Congress he wants in 2026.

* As the House returns after an almost two-month vacation to vote on new Senate legislation to reopen the government, Democrats debate whether the shutdown was worth it, whether eight of their number crossing the aisle to end the suffering was a capitulation or strategic, and whether Republicans can be trusted to open debate on restoring the ACA subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans.

* The reopening of the House also means that Republican Leader Mike Johnson will finally swore in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, allowing her to begin working a mere seven weeks after having been elected. She is the daughter of Raúl Grijalva, who represented Arizona’s 7th until his death earlier this year. Johnson insisted he was powerless to administer the oath until the House was back in session.

* Coincidentally, Grijalva was the final signature on a bipartisan petition demanding the full release of the Epstein files, and Speaker Mike Johnson has scheduled a vote on that petition for next Wednesday. In advance of that, as of Wednesday, we have the release of about 20,000 pages of emails between Epstein that implicate a variety of people in his affairs, including Donald Trump and former Harvard President Larry Summers.

* Speaking of the Epstein files: journalist Michael Wolff has slapped Melania Trump with a lawsuit, claiming that her threat to sue him for $1 billion is an attempt to stop his reporting on her own involvement with Epstein.

Your hosts:

Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.

Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

On September 3, 2025, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, GA-14) speaks to the media after a press conference with Epstein survivors. Photo credit: Philip Yabut/Shutterstock

Our focus: What happened to Marjorie Taylor Greene?

* Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia businesswoman, was elected to the House of Representatives from Georgia’s 14th district in 2020: here’s a biographical essay from 2021.

* Greene took office in 2021 amid a slew of accurate charges that she spread conspiracy theories (some antisemitic), threatened Democratic colleagues, and was a conduit for Russian propaganda. In 2021, she was suspended from Twitter for spreading COVID misinformation, and was fined almost $50K for not wearing a mask on the House Floor. When she finally capitulated, she wore face coverings with messages on them. A self-identified Christian nationalist, Greene left the Catholic church because of the sexual abuse scandals, and she joined the evangelical Protestant Northpoint Community Church in Alpharetta, GA.

* In her first term, Greene was disciplined by both a Democratic-led House and by fellow Republicans. In 2022, she and Lauren Boebert (R, CO-04) heckled Joe Biden and called him a liar at the State of the Union address.

* Originally Lauren Boebert’s Bobbsey Twin, the two MAGA women had a nasty break-up. Greene’s tight relationship with then-Congressman Matt Gaetz (R, FL-01) did better: as his nomination for Attorney General was failing in 2024, Greene accused the GOP of overlooking other members with equally grave transgressions.

* Some argue that MTG’s current attacks on fellow Republicans are a savvy money-raising technique that prey on MAGA conspiracists who are suspicious of all entrenched power.

* After last week’s Blue Wave, Greene warned fellow MAGAs that their losses could be chalked up to a failure to make life affordable. “Business 101,” she said. “If you don’t deliver what you promise, then don’t expect return customers.”

* Greene’s criticism of the GOP preceded the Blue Wave on election day 2025. On September 3, Greene was one of several Republicans to speak at a September press conference on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by alleged victims of financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, to demand the release of materials still withheld by the DOJ. She also promised that she would read “every damn name” into the Congressional record.

* Greene also spoke out against the expiration of the ACA tax credits in early October, and in an appearance on The View this week, disavowed her long-term support for QAnon.

* Greene says she has consistently been America First, but that increasingly Trump is not. “Restoring American’s ability to raise a family on one income, to me, should be a top priority,” Greene posted on X Tuesday. “It was once the norm in America.” This was a position originally promoted by Elizabeth Warren and her daughter Amelia Tyagi two decades ago in a book called The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Still Going Broke (2004).

* The tech and design platform Fast Company is calling Greene’s evolution “the brand pivot of the year.” Some are speculating about a presidential run in 2028.

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What we want to go viral:

* Neil urges you to read an unfolding story about thrill-seeking in a war zone, Sarah Rainsford and Guy Delauney’s “Italy investigates claims of tourists paying to shoot civilians in Bosnia in 1990s,” (BBC, November 12. While the evidence is still hazy, the Italian government is looking into charges that “Italian citizens travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina on ‘sniper safaris’ during the war in the early 1990s.” The problem is based on an investigation by Milan journalist Ezio Gavazzeni that wealthy people bought access from Serbian authorities to such trips: participants reportedly paid different rates for the “privilege” of shooting men, women, and children.

* Claire is behind on her television watching as usual, but is currently in love with Hacks (2021- ), the Max series starring Hannah Einbinder as Ava Daniels, a struggling young comedy writer, and Jean Smart as a veteran stand-up comedienne at the end of her career. The series is beautifully plotted and written and has a lot to say about not just women and creativity, but about all of us making a commitment to learning from our generational differences.

Short takes:

* The Trump administration has begun to refer to the nation’s premier food assistance program, SNAP, as “broken” and in need of reform—a sure sign that benefits suspended during the shutdown may be threatened permanently,” Melody Schreiber writes at The New Republic. “During previous shutdowns, including the 2019 shutdown under the first Trump administration, SNAP continued operating as normal. The fact that the second administration refused to tap into the emergency fund this time—and brought the issue all the way up to the Supreme Court—is itself worrying to those who follow food assistance. (November 14, 2025)

* Former FTC Chair Lina Kahn is bringing the trust-busting savvy she exercised in the Biden administration to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s affordability agenda, Liz Hoffman reports at Semaphore. “People familiar with the transition, and her thinking, have an answer: Khan has been scouring city and state laws—some overlooked by past mayors and some too new to have been tested yet—for legal footing for Mamdani’s priorities,” Hoffman writes. “It’s a skill set the Yale-trained lawyer wielded while running the FTC, where she dusted off laws, some dating from the early 20th century, and sued companies under novel theories of harm.” (November 12, 2025)

* As we have discussed on the podcast, gadfly Laura Loomer is no ordinary MAGA: in fact, she believes she may be Donald Trump’s spiritual twin, and she has periodically purged White House personnel by pillorying them to her 1 million followers on social media “Loomer’s influence extends beyond the realm of personnel,” Antonia Hitchens writes in a profile at The New Yorker. “In August, a group of Palestinian children who had been severely injured in the war in Gaza arrived in San Francisco after the State Department issued around two hundred temporary visas for medical treatment. Loomer posted a video of the children being received with flowers at the airport.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio called her that night, and suspended the program the following day. (November 10, 2025)

Jean Smart shines as diva comedienne Deborah Vance in Hacks. Photograph courtesy of Max.

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